


My Enemies Are All Too Familiar

by liseuse



Series: Natasha Sings Punk [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, punk music mends hearts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-20
Updated: 2012-08-20
Packaged: 2017-11-12 13:18:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/491457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liseuse/pseuds/liseuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The more things change, the more they stay the same. Politics and punk and San Francisco all collide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Enemies Are All Too Familiar

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Faith in Fast Cars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/473172) by [goshemily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/goshemily/pseuds/goshemily). 



> I was re-reading [goshemily's](http://archiveofourown.org/users/goshemily/pseuds/goshemily) awesome [Faith in Fast Cars](http://archiveofourown.org/works/473172/chapters/819164) and watching the Pussy Riot hashtag on my twitterfeed, and this fic happened. 
> 
> The title is from Boxcar by Jawbreaker - [video here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dBq_4TsZI) \- youtube link.

Natasha approves of the syllabus Darcy drew up for Steve’s immersion into the last seventy years of popular music. Darcy had colour-coded it, for mood and for need, and for sheer measures of resistance, and she’s put in little sidesteps to the musical history of places that aren’t the US, and Natasha likes that touch. She’d edited the doc a few times, to add in who she thinks of as being important Eastern European bands. There are people missing, there will always be people missing. Natasha and Darcy are two people, and they can’t cover it all, but they’ve given Steve enough that now he seeks out bands on his own, plays them and hopes for their agreement. Apart from his regrettable fondness for the Beatles, Natasha doesn’t think he’s done too badly.

“Fucking hell,” Natasha says, in Russian, under her breath, and throws the newspaper down onto the kitchen side. They’re in Tony’s San Francisco house, Natasha’s got an assignment, Steve thought it would be good biking country and Darcy made some noise about reconnecting with an old friend. Jobs never used to mean travelling with an entourage, but Natasha doesn’t mind as much as she thought she would. It’s not a deepcover job, she gets to go home at the end of each day, and she’s liking San Francisco more than she thought she would.

Darcy leans over the counter to see the headline, and swears creatively. “Of course they fucking did that, of fucking course.” She drops her coffee mug in the sink, and pulls out her phone, texting furiously as she leaves the kitchen.

Steve just quirks an eyebrow at the headline, and then smiles sadly. “The more things change,” he says and runs the water so it fills the oatmeal bowls and Darcy’s cup. “I’m going for a run, fancy joining me?” he asks Natasha, and she thinks about the recon she was going to do today, the headline and the way the sun is sweeping the bay. “Give me five minutes,” she says and heads to get her running shoes and cue up the best playlist.

They pound ten miles out along the curve of the bay, and then head back up the hills. By the time they’re back at the house Darcy is furiously im’ing, texting and holding a Skype conversation and Natasha thinks that one of the people on the screen looks familiar. 

“Darcy, are you plotting to take us to war?” Steve says when he sees the three computer screens, the two tablets and enough sheets of paper to fill a ringbinder all over the table.

“Umm, kind of?” Darcy says, and grins. It’s bright and furious and she is going to change the world, Natasha thinks. “Look, you saw the headline this morning. That shit has got to fucking stop. So, I called a friend. Who called a friend.”

“And they called some more friends,” Natasha says slowly. She’s just remembered who the person on the screen was.

\--

“All right, guys! Girls! PEOPLE EVERYWHERE! This is a new song, we wrote it yesterday,” Ray pauses, raises an eyebrow and the crowd laughs, they know that phrase means something is coming, “AND WE CALL IT, FUCK YOU TOO PUTIN!”

The crowd goes wild, and Natasha tucks a smile inside her cheek, grabs Steve’s hand and pulls him down into the pit. Darcy is already there, dancing wildly with a green-haired girl. They fitted out one of the Avengers Tower gyms a few weeks ago, invited everyone they knew, irritated JARVIS with the loud music requests and taught Steve how to know his body in a pit. Natasha thinks she might have got the ability through too many different forms of brainwashing, and Darcy has clearly been doing this for years, but Steve is tall and muscle and he can hurt people without meaning to. So they let him practice on the SHIELD flunkies until he felt safe. 

Darcy had dragged Steve out to a divebar gig a few nights after that, and Natasha had dropped in when she was done at the embassy. She’d watched Steve define a space, keep it safe, and used his muscle to keep it safe for the smaller and younger kids at the show. She knows some guys in the scene who feel hard done by that they have to do that for people, but Steve told her later that it made it feel even better. Like, he got to enjoy something and help other people enjoy it too. And wasn’t that what it was all about? The fervour in his eyes had been too much to look at straight on, and Natasha had toasted him with her drink to break the eye contact. Darcy had pinched his cheek then stolen his beer, and kicked her way back into the pit.

\--

Steve is talking earnestly to someone when Natasha next looks for him properly. She’s been digging down in the pit with Darcy, feeling her muscle shift, and some of the tension leave her bones. She’s sung along, and there are tears at the back of her eyes. She won’t shed them, she hasn’t earned them yet, but they’re there, and when she’d looked up at the singer she’d seen them in his eyes too.

“Hey,” she says and asks the bartender for water. 

“Natasha,” Steve says, seriously, “this is Doc Bryan. He’s been telling me about the work he’s been doing with Medecins Sans Frontieres.”

“Nice to meet you,” Natasha says, shaking his hand. “You recruiting?”

He matches the curve of her eyebrow, and smiles. “Captain America wants to come help us out, we’re not going to say no.” He must see her posture change slightly, because he throws a hand out at the crowd, “you think no one here has noticed that Steve Rogers has been throwing himself around in the pit? They’ve noticed. And I think if Steve Rogers wants to come help out then it’s a different thing to Captain America coming to help, but I’m not going to turn either of them down.”

“Well, Steve Rogers thinks that maybe he gets to choose,” Steve drawls and finishes his beer. “But for now he’s going to go and thank the band.”

Natasha watches him go and stand to the side of the stage, earnestly shaking the hand of the singer, and orders a beer.

\--

"Avengers Weigh In On Pussy Riot Sentencing!" reads the headline on Fury's screen when they get back to New York. There's a picture of Steve, talking to Nate, with the caption "Hometown boys, Bravo Two realise lifetime dream and play Great American Music Hall" underneath. Steve's smile is matched by Nate's and you can see the protest signs set up at the side of the stage.

"We were there in our personal capacities," Steve shrugs and Fury looks like he wants to grind his teeth. "Plus, it was the right thing to do."

"Get out of my office," Fury says. "Just, get out."

"Yes sir." Steve says, and Darcy throws a mock salute as they file out of the room. Natasha pauses as she goes through the doorway, turns to face Fury and nods at the screen. "Check out the OpEd on page eight." She's got it tacked up on the insider of her locker; a picture of Steve and Doc Bryan at the top, next to the writer's picture and 750 words about Medecins Sans Frontieres.


End file.
